A total of $84.9 billion has been budgeted to improve the health sector this year.
“In 2023, we will witness a vast transformation of infrastructure in the public healthcare system,” Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh said during the 2023 budget presentation yesterday.
This year, according to Singh, the Ministry of Health (MoH) will advance infrastructural works for the paediatric and maternal hospital and six regional hospitals. A maternal waiting home at Mabaruma is expected to be completed later this year.
“The former will be a centre of excellence for maternal and paediatric care, while the latter is intended to decentralise modern healthcare into Lima, De Kinderen, Diamond, Enmore, Bath, and No. 75 Village. An amount of $13.1 billion is allocated in Budget 2023,” he said
The Ministry will also commence the rehabilitation, expansion and reconstruction of the Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden hospitals, as well as four telemedicine centres in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9.
“The latter are intended to be modern facilities that will deploy communication technology to facilitate real time, remote diagnosis and treatment, thereby bringing modern healthcare to remote indigenous communities,” Singh explained.
An amount of $1.8 billion is allocated for this in Budget 2023.
It is also expected that construction of the Bartica Regional Hospital – which has a budget of $830 million – will commence this year.
Some $1 billion has also been allocated to retrofit and upgrade health centres, health posts, and other facilities across the country and $620 million to construct and rehabilitate health science training facilities in Regions 2 and 6.
The Karasabai, Annai and Sand Creek health centres in Region Nine will be upgraded to district hospitals this year and will provide radiology and laboratory services at a budget of $237 million while an additional $2.5 billion is earmarked for purchases of equipment in 2023 across all 10 administrative regions.
The Ministry also hopes to fulfil over 80 percent of all requests made for drugs and medical supplies.
“It is no small task to rectify what could only be described as a broken mechanism of pharmaceutical supply chain management. However, we have so far been able to put systems in place to better manage the country’s stock which is reflected in improved fulfilment of requests for drugs supplied by the Materials Management Unit (MMU) in 2022. These efforts, as well as increases in storage capacity, improved storage conditions for cold chain products, management,” Singh said.
The government also plans to increase doctors and nurses country wide this year.
“For the first time in recent history, the residents of White Water, Shulinab and Monkey Mountain can now visit a resident doctor in their respective villages. In addition to the investment in health sciences training facilities, over $500 million has been allocated this year for the training of healthcare professionals,” Singh said.
Reducing maternal mortality is a key goal of the government this year and this should see the training of 29 traditional birth attendants in Regions 1 and 9, and the purchase of over $250 million in related equipment and expanded training of health care providers in family planning.
“In 2023, we will launch several new initiatives, including one that aims at expectant mothers in the hinterland having at least one ultrasound, and is visited at least once by an obstetrician during her pregnancy. Additionally, screening for post-partum depression will be implemented countrywide,” Singh said.
